An Ecological Ethics View On The Yearling

Science and technology development brings the great progress of the economics. But the human living environment gets worse and worse because of the economic development. We often hear such reports that are the oil spilling, natural disasters and sandstorms. We also hear that many animals are in danger of extinction. We never hear about all of those before, but now we see them more and more frequently. All of those are the warning of the nature. If we still ignore such situation, our life will in danger someday.Ethics only concerns about human and ignores the environment around us. Ecological ethics researches the relationship between human and nature from the moral and ethical point of view. It advocates that human and nature should live harmoniously. Both Singer's Animal Liberation theory and Schweitzer's Reverence for life concern on animals. They advocate that animals can also feel happy, angry and sad, so human should respect animals. Leopold's Earth ethics not only focuses on animals but also focuses on land, water, plant and so on. He suggests that we must have a global awareness and take care of the whole ecosystem on certain height. Like the original Anthropocentrism, Modern Anthropocentrism believes that human is still the center of the world. But it surpasses the original Anthropocentrism. It advocates that human have compelling responsibility on nature. We must protect our environment in the process of our development. This paper will take The Yearling as an example and analyze deeply to show the ecological ethics which contains in the novel. This novel is written by American female novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. In this novel, it contains the author's idea of ecological ethics and the longing towards the original life in the jungle. In the novel, the author depicts the jungle life experience of Penny and Judy. She advocates that we must put the human beings and animals on the same moral line. We should treat animals equally and shouldn't misuse them. She also believes that to care and love animals are human's inner moral request. Animals are our neighbors and friends. It is hard for human beings to live in such lonely world if the animals disappeared. The author confirms that human and animals can live harmoniously because there is enough space for them to live together. However, how can human and animals live in harmony? How can we choose between existence and moral? The novel gives us much enlightenment. In order to live harmoniously with the animals, we must moderate our desire and advocate the simple life. We also should assume the responsibility to save the environment and actively coordinate the relationship between human and animals in order to make it developing healthily and harmoniously.